Sekuru Matomati forges an axe and tells a story

Anthony 'Matomati' Zonke forges an axe and tells a story about how he started to play mbira in 1981. In this story he tells of learning to play songs in his dreams starting in 1976 and eventually becoming sick until he was able to acquire a matepe mbira of his own. Axe in Shona language is 'demo' To forge is 'kupfura' The bellows are called 'mvuto' which in this case is made of a grain sack. The act of working the bellows is 'kuvhuta' The handle of the axe is made from the musika tree. The sap from the mukuyu tree is used to paint the head of the axe and conditions the wood to help protect and to strengthen the axe head portion of the handle. This video was recorded mostly in August 2017 in Nyamapanda, Zimbabwe with audio recorded in July 2017 by Jocelyn Mory and Zachary Moon. Read more about the sacred technology of African ironworking in Jocelyn Mory's research blog, yelloweaver: https://yelloweaver.com/home/2020/8/1...